Fall Doldrumsand DebaclesHurricane Sandy- October 2012

I am a master procrastinator, and so far I haven’t gotten much done in the garden. It never fails that when my school schedules the free flu shots, I get bronchitis and pneumonia (just a touch of each, but enough to keep me out of work and practically on bed rest for five or six days)! While I recuperated, I gazed out the sliding door and marveled at the sunlight glazing the fall grasses, clear blue skies with crisp white clouds and the last blooms of Hemerocallis ‘Barbara’ standing tall. Still, I had little time or energy to tackle garden chores.

(Click on photo to see a larger image)

Hemerocallis 'Barbara' (Click on photo to see a larger image)

Just as my health started to improve, I got another terrible cough and pneumonia again! Before I could recover from that illness, tropical storm Sandy hit the east coast on Monday, October 29, 2012! Since we had some warning, my husband and I did our best over the weekend to batten down the hatches at our waterfront properties, but there was just so much that we could do. We were exhausted! By 10 pm Sunday night, the two cats and I were safely ensconced at my 89 year old dad's apartment in his life care community. He lives 45 minutes from me in the middle of the Island- far from the water. My husband stayed on the property, along with a few other neighborhood men. He spent all of Monday (while waiting for the worst of the storm to hit) moving things to the upper levels of our two houses. We had moved his truck miles away to a safer place than a flood zone! He was home without transportation and power, keeping track of the rising waters by flashlight. The yard was flooded, as well as 8" on the ground floor of the "office house” (my husband runs his business from the house next door). The basement of the office house had 7' of water in it and of course the cesspool backed up. Our garages were flooded, and the water came within inches of the first floor of the house that we live in before it began to recede at midnight Tuesday night! Steve was too tired to check the crawl space under the house for flooding. There were limbs down everywhere and the driveways were flooded 2’-3' deep.

One of the driveways the day after. (Click on photo to see a larger image)

Day after the storm. (Click on photo to see a larger image)

The water rose up to the top of the hedges at the highest tide which occurred at 11PM. (Click on photo to see a larger image)

Typical storm debris. Anything that's green in this photo turned brown by the next day. (Click on photo to see a larger image)

90% of Suffolk County was without power. The electric company was not optimistic about things changing anytime soon. Driving was dangerous as trees and wires were down on the roads and there were few traffic lights working. My husband tried to get the generator running, but it had gotten flooded. I went home to the mess the day after the storm to try and help with the cleanup. My son came down from upstate to help us out, too. He, Steve and I stayed with my dad at night. We even had dinner in the facility's cafeteria! Luxury compared to what most people on LI were dealing with! On Friday the power came back on! My sister, her family and my MIL moved in with us until they got their electric back. The “office house” still needed a new electric panel and wiring, so there was no electric over there. The furnace and water heater weren’t functioning either. Steve and Jaron had to sanitize the space with bleach as the cesspool backed up. Our house was fine, but the outdoor cleanup was massive. We had trees in both driveways and the flood waters encompassed the whole garden leaving heavy debris behind. Most of that was dumped in the woods next to our driveway to be hauled away later. All the deciduous plants had salt and wind damage. Luckily, we were experiencing temps in the 30's at night, so the plants would be dying back anyway. Some evergreens faired a little better. Of course, I finally hired someone a week before the storm to edge all the beds and spread the mound of mulch that had been sitting in my driveway! I had never had the beds edged and everything looked so beautiful! Well as you can guess, the edges and mulch are no more! Same with the very little topsoil I had in the garden.

The newly edged and mulched garden days before the storm! (Click on photo to see a larger image)

My husband and son cutting down a very tall tree. That's a 24' ladder! Steve used my son's rock climbing equipment to tie himself into the tree. (Click on photo to see a larger image)

A week after the storm, there was no cable or phone at home, but sometimes my iPhone could find a signal. I drove to the Northport train station where there was an internet hotspot. Getting gas was a real problem. After a relatively short wait of 2 ½ hours, I was able to get my first fill-up, so I could return to work a week after the storm. Lots of people at work didn’t have electricity for weeks, so we were very lucky! While all this was going on, my sisters and I were planning a 90th birthday party for my dad. It was being held nine days after the storm! Over 150 people were attending and my sister and I were putting family up in our homes! People were flying in from three states and others were driving long distances. Fortunately, the caterer had power and everything else went off without a hitch! I don't feel very hopeful about my garden post-Sandy. I may have to do a huge overhaul come spring. I'm fearful that I may have lost many daylilies this time around. All the new plants that I put in to replace what Irene killed last year are probably toast as well. All I do is lament when I am asked about my garden! It's just so discouraging! I look back at photos from previous years and it's hard to believe that a single storm could cause so much damage. At least I still have a place to garden, so I really shouldn’t complain! There are so many other people that have lost everything- they are the ones who have a right to shed tears.